Christian Horner and Zak Brown ignited a war of words over Formula 1‘s Miami Grand Prix weekend, centred around whether McLaren’s 2025 car complies with the rules.
The MCL39’s ability to keep tyre temperatures down in hotter races has led some teams – including Red Bull – to question how the Woking-based squad has achieved this.
The issue dates back to last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, when it was alleged that McLaren had injected small amounts of water into the tyres to reduce tyre temperature.
McLaren CEO Brown responded to this in Miami as he was spotted on the television broadcast drinking out of a bottle that had the words ‘tire water’ labelled on it.
Brown insisted it was a way of “poking fun at a serious issue”, but therein lies a deeper needle between him and the Red Bull team boss.
Red Bull has continuously raised the issue of McLaren’s advantages in warmer conditions, leading Brown to suggest that teams that wish to complain formally about another team should pay a deposit in order to do so.
Brown suggested that £25,000 would be a reasonable amount, with the risk being that if a complaint is unfounded, the money is taken from its cost cap budget.
The American pointedly indicated that Red Bull has been the team to complain the most in recent times about what competitors are doing, hence his suggestion.
“Teams have historically made allegations at other teams,” Brown said. “Most recently one team focuses on that strategy more than others.
“And I think there is a proper way to protest a team at the end of a race, and you have to make it formal, disclose where it comes from, you have to put some money down…. and that should come against your cost cap if it turns out you are wrong.
” I think that would significantly stop the bogus allegations which come from some teams in the sport.”
Complaining about McLaren dominance ‘part and parcel’ of F1, claims Horner
Horner made a humorous riposte of his own as he suggested that he would send Brown “a Red Bull [drink] down if he needs some energising” on the pitwall.
But he was also serious in his comeback at Brown’s comments, highlighting that questioning the performance advantages of other teams’ cars is the norm in F1.
“Of course in Formula 1 there is always going to be questions that are raised,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“They [McLaren] did exactly the same about the front suspension on our car last year.
“It’s inevitable when you’re running at the front as we have for the last few years, you always come under more scrutiny. So that’s part and parcel of Formula 1.”
“And in many respects for the FIA, all of the teams do the vast majority of the work because, of course, their resource is far greater and there’s always a competitor analysis going on across all of the teams.”
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